Shannon Hunt, a Victoria writer and former Editor-in-Chief of KNOW and YES Mag, has set the bar high in her first foray into digital publishing. Written in a fun, conversational tone, London 2012 Olympics: The Kids’ Only Guide, is the perfect way to introduce iPad-toting kids to everything—and I mean everything—they want to know about the Olympics. From the planning and construction of the Olympic village, to the sports, the venues, and some of the star athletes, this reasonably priced eBook tells all. It’s a hefty tome with seven chapters and 228 pages, but it’s loaded with excellent photos and a very light text-to-photo ratio that doesn’t leave readers bogged down with rules and protocols. Whether kids want to know more about a specific sport or are keen to find out more about Olympic history, the London 2012 logo, British culture, or even London Olympics souvenirs, it’s all here.

Female athletes receive much attention in both the text, sidebars, and photos. Indeed women athletes often appear first—hurray! Chapter three features Paralympic Sports, including how they started, an overview of the variety of sports and “classes” to accommodate different abilities. The abundance of interesting factoids throughout reveals the author’s excellent research skills and her knack for crafting accurate, humorous, kid-friendly explanations.

As well as being packed with fun puns and cute asides (e.g., “Do you think those seats come with free popcorn?”), London 2012 Olympics: The Kids Only Guide includes special features a plenty. Here’s the low-down:

Event Info sidebars outline the date, the location, and the number of athletes competing, while also including a photograph of the venue (e.g., Velodrome, Wembley Arena).

Small cartoon kids (drawn by the author’s children) add extra tidbits of information, stats, or silly jokes. Many of these kids wave flags and include captions, such as “Go Sweden!” or others like “He’s a human pogo stick!” and even a sketch of Harry Potter in the London Underground saying “Where’s Platform 9 ¾?”

“Photo albums” feature inspiring, full-screen views of athletes in action for various events.

“Quiz Questions” give readers a chance to test their knowledge with multiple choice or true/false questions.

Cartoon captions jazz up the photos that say things like, “Darn, I forgot my banner!” or “Oh no, I lost my hat!”

A Contents page, showing the titles of the chapters, would likely please traditional book lovers, but handy thumbnail snapshots along the bottom of the screen help even newbie-digital readers (like me!) navigate through the multiple pages of each chapter. Indeed, my only quibbles are with the eBook technology itself, which makes the iPad shut down when a page is left open too long (grrr!), but that’s not unique to this eBook, of course—yes, it’s a energy saver, and that’s good, but this doesn’t mesh with page ponderers and deliberating reviewers.

My verdict? It’s a winner, for sure! Celebrate Olympic fever and get sported up for summer. Get your copy on iTunes.

You can read a great article about this eBook by clicking this Saanich News link.

On Jan. 26, 2012, it was confirmed that Mad Science, owner of Victoria-based Peter Piper Publishing, would be shutting down both KNOW andYES Mag. The news came as a shock to the six employees, support staff, and freelance contributors most of whom were told to cease working immediately.

Issue 37: Exploring Caves, published in January, marked KNOW‘s 6th birthday. KNOW was awarded 2011 Winner, Best Series & 2008 Winner, as well as Best Column by the Association of Educational Publishers. It was also recommended in 2011 by the Parents’ Choice Awards.

Adrienne Mason, the “mother of KNOW” — along with publisher David Garrison and editor-in-chief Shannon Hunt — helped launch the magazine and lead it to success as its managing editor for six years. I took over as managing editor in September 2011. It was my dream job, so the closure’s been very upsetting.

My heart goes out to the children who subscribed and won’t receive any more issues in the mail. Sadly for me, professionally, only one issue was printed with my name in the masthead as managing editor, though I contributed many articles over the life of the magazine. The March/April issue was one week away from being sent to the printer. I was proud of that issue, which featured a popular character from a children’s picture book and had some wonderful articles. Sam Logan did a superb job on this issue’s design. The May/June issue had been fully planned and assigned. Most of the articles had been submitted and illustrators were just about to start drawing.

YES Mag received accolades from the Association of Educational Publishers in 2009 as Periodical of the Year. Jude Isabella took over as managing editor about ten years ago. She did a wonderful job in developing ideas with high appeal for children ages 10 to 15. The last few issues were managed by the talented Matt J. Simmons (who also co-managed KNOW issues 35 and 36), while Jude was on leave to pursue writing projects. My own children subscribed to YES Mag, having outgrown KNOW. They loved the content, which was intelligent, thought-provoking, and stimulating.

David Garrison and Shannon Hunt started YES Mag in their basement about 16 years ago. Wanting to fill a gap in the market and turn kids onto science with high-quality, accurately researched science articles, these creative and science-savvy entrepreneurs worked tirelessly to build a base of subscribers across Canada, into the U.S., and beyond. Tapping into Canada’s rich and talented community of science writers for children and children’s illustrators, the couple forged long-lasting relationships with a number of regular contributors. In turn, the creative community enjoyed regular paying gigs for assignments that were stimulating, fun, and challenging. In his role as publisher, David Garrison was fair-minded, pleasant-mannered, and generous (certainly as generous as shoestring budgets would allow). Shannon Hunt’s keen eye and top-notch copy editing skills ensured that issues went error-free to the printer. Bill Slavin, Mike Cope, and Glen Mullaly illustrated for the magazines on a bi-monthly basis for many years.

The loss of these two high-quality, highly respected children’s magazines will be felt for a long time. Not only have these magazines served to promote the work of children’s nonfiction/science writers, but they have helped writers hone their skills and write entertaining, engaging, factually accurate science articles for specific age ranges of children — not an easy feat.

As a freelancer, writing assignments for KNOW used to fill a gap between other contracts. Now that KNOW and YES Mag are gone, this stop-gap is gone, and with it a little more of the confidence remaining in Canada’s artistic community.

You can find "trade" books by Jill Bryant at your favourite local bookstore.
Just ask the bookseller to order them if they aren't on the shelf.
Alternatively, shop online at Chapters Indigo.ca or Amazon.ca.